Delays in signing tripartite agreements due to vaccine makers being 'overwhelmed' —NTF

Tripartite agreements for securing COVID-19 vaccines have been put on hold as international drug manufacturers are still overwhelmed with new orders, National Task Force against COVID-19 spokesman Restituto Padilla said Sunday.

He pointed out that vaccine makers are not ready to accept new agreements even as the Vaccination Program Act of 2021 allows local government units to purchase their vaccines through multi-party agreements.

"Maraming suppliers na nagsabi na hindi sila handa pumasok sa tripartite as of the moment kasi hindi nila mapunan ang lahat ng orders sa kanila," Padilla said over Dobol B TV. 

(There are many suppliers saying that they are not ready to enter into tripartite agreement for now because they have yet to fulfill their pending orders.)

This comes in the wake of Senator Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri's call to the Senate to conduct a probe into the reports that tripartite agreements for procurement of vaccines have not been signed.

But Padilla pointed out that vaccine makers, including Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson, were still not accepting new tripartite agreements.

"Nagsabi na po ang Moderna at AstraZeneca na ayaw nila pumasok sa kasunduan hangga't hindi nade-deliver ang current delivery... Ganoon din ang Johnson & Johnson," said Padilla.

(Moderna and AstraZeneca have already said they do not want to enter into agreements until they finish their current delivery. The same is true of Johnson & Johnson.)

Meanwhile, Padilla assured the public that current orders of the national government are "enough to fulfill the initial stages" of vaccination in the country.

It is still a race against time for herd immunity in the Philippines as fully vaccinated individuals in the country were at 12.87 million, still far off the target of inoculating 70 million people. 

The national government aimed to hasten vaccination with the current spike of COVID-19 cases due to the highly infectious Delta coronavirus variant. 

The number of COVID-19 cases in the country rose to 1,824,051 on Saturday with 16,694 new infections, the second-highest number of daily infections recorded since the pandemic started.

Of this number, 123,935 are active; 1,668,520 recovered; and 31,596 died. —KG, GMA News